Part of that reluctance is based on the assumption that he's more
Spanish than Argentinian. He left Rosario, Argentina, at age 13
and has lived in Barcelona ever since.

The reason he left, though, might have more to do with his first
club than with Messi himself.

In a 2010
Sports Illustrated profile, S.L. Price reported that Messi
began taking growth hormones that cost $1,500 for a 45-day cycle
at age 11. He was playing with the youth team of a club called
Newell's Old Boys at the time. When he was 13, Messi's dad's
company stopped covering the cost of the medicine.

According to Price, the Messi family asked the club to cover the
medicine. Newell's made a few $500 payments and then stopped. The
Messis looked for a new club, and Barcelona stepped in and agreed
to pay for the medicine if Leo signed with them. Messi moved to
Spain, and the rest is history.

It's one of the worst sports moves of all time. If Newell's
simply paid for the medicine, they could have sold Messi for a
monster price once he came of age.

The club maintains that it gave the Messi family $8,000 for the
medicine, according to Price. The former president even carries
around some wrinkled receipts that allegedly prove the payments
were made, Price reports. But ESPN's Wright Thompson, who
did a big story on Messi, saw the receipts and says they
"seem like forgeries" designed to save the club from the
embarrassment of losing Messi over a few thousand dollars.